Covid: Nicola Sturgeon's reputation as safe pair of hands in the crisis is at risk over student shambles – Murdo Fraser MSP

Students and parents will be wondering why they are paying for university accommodation when the courses are online, writes Murdo Fraser MSP.

Nicola Sturgeon cannot afford many more failures in the field of education (Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

If opinion polls are to be believed, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is generally deemed to have performed well during the coronavirus pandemic. The Scottish Government has, to a considerable extent, followed the same approach as other governments within the UK, with only minor departures – generally to impose stricter restrictions than in England, or to maintain them for a longer period.

The Scottish Government has been able, in the main, to watch developments being announced by the UK Government and observe their impact before deciding whether to go down the same route. This “second mover” advantage has played to the First Minister’s benefit, and her generally cautious approach to relaxing restrictions seems to have chimed with majority Scottish opinion.

Where the SNP Government has got into difficulties is when circumstances have required them to move faster than other parts of the UK. We have seen a series of examples of the difficulty this causes in the field of education, where the different school timetable in Scotland compared to elsewhere has meant that Scottish ministers have been deprived of the luxury of waiting to see how others perform, before having to take decisions themselves.

Back in June, the Education Secretary, John Swinney, managed to get into a terrible muddle over plans to reopen the schools in August on a blended-learning model, a stance he quickly had to retreat from in the face of vigorous opposition from parents and pupils. Similarly, when the SQA exam results came out last month, he was forced into a humiliating U-turn, such was the degree of public opposition to the Government’s original stance. We are now seeing the same thing happening once more, this time in relation to universities.

Unsurprisingly, the admission of large numbers of students from all over the country to live together in close proximity at the start of the autumn term is considered to be a key factor in a dramatic rise in Covid-19 cases amongst the younger generation, predominantly in university towns and cities. As a consequence, a series of restrictions has been introduced on student behaviour: on leaving residences, on visiting pubs, and on returning to the family home.

For young people, often away from home for the first time, it is a desperately depressing and confusing situation. Freshers’ week should be one of the most exciting times of a young person’s life: an opportunity to meet new people, to try new experiences; a whirlwind combination of adventure, exhilaration and sheer terror. Instead, young people, some just 17, find themselves effectively under house arrest in miserable circumstances. The situation has not been helped by the confused messaging from the Scottish Government, which Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross has described as “a first-class shambles”. Students were first told that they would not be permitted to return to their family homes, but the guidance changed on Sunday evening to say that they could do so, but only either in “exceptional circumstances”, or on a permanent basis.

Given the living conditions that many students now face in halls of residence, and the fact that many courses are now being delivered almost entirely online, there are more than a few – and their parents – wondering why they should be paying for accommodation when they could be living and studying much more happily from their family home. Yet they are tied into accommodation contracts which mean they will have to pay for their halls of residence even if they are no longer living there.

For those students who choose to stay on campus, they face threats of punishment – fines, or even being removed from courses – if they do not abide by the rules. It is hardly the happy experience that many new students were looking forward to when they signed up to take on a university place. With Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner warning that the threat of sanctions against students for breaking the rules could breach human rights, it is clear that something has gone far wrong, and needs to be sorted.

Nicola Sturgeon cannot afford many more failures in the field of education if she is to maintain her reputation for being a safe pair of hands in the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife

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